Especially compared to doom 1. When I first started doom 2, I was thinking it was a joke or a fan created map or something. First off WTF is with the music? It went from atmospheric, evil doom music to unfitting lounge music.

The level design was mostly trash. Completely boring textures, no atmosphere, nothing. What happened? How did we go from doom to doom 2?

The new monsters and SSG really flesh out the game though, it's just too bad the Baron of hell was kept in because it's so lame. I dunno what's wrong with the rest of the maps except maybe Nirvana because of how broken it is, but I'd still rather play that then E3M1 or E3M5.

Wolfenstein tops all of your idiotic doom map designs by far. It also has a fun score system and plenty of collectibles, which doom is entirely lacking. And I'm not even going to bring up the lack of lives in doom. Is this how FPS were supposed to evolve? Really? Dirt-poor attempt, id, I highly doubt fans will ever excuse this major transgression.

I think Doom 2 lacked what Doom 1 had in terms of atmosphere and aesthetics, but that probably has to due with (my assumption that) it was a rushed product and not a full game. Seems like Sandy's lovecraftiness wasn't as present in Doom 2 as it was in Doom 1. No reason Doom 2 wasn't a good game though.

So what if the levels were made of cardboard boxes with no height variation? At least these boxes were painted with bright and vivid colors. So what if the game is more repetitive? The more important thing is that it doesn't take itself very seriously, unlike Doom with all its teenage metalhead "satanic" bullshit.

It's very sad to see a promising developer to degrade in this fashion, to lose the ability to invoke positive emotions in people.

Marnetmar said:
Seems like Sandy's lovecraftiness wasn't as present in Doom 2 as it was in Doom 1.

At least in some sense it's definitely the other way around, especially if you consider the run down (often old-fashioned) architecture, antique libraries and new grotesque monsters. There's probably nothing more Lovecraftian in the DOOM games than the DOOM II intermission screen, in any case.

Marnetmar said:
I think Doom 2 lacked what Doom 1 had in terms of atmosphere and aesthetics, but that probably has to due with (my assumption that) it was a rushed product and not a full game. Seems like Sandy's lovecraftiness wasn't as present in Doom 2 as it was in Doom 1. No reason Doom 2 wasn't a good game though.

Given that Sandy was hired two months before Doom's release, and was given the task of assembling a bunch of odds and ends and whatever else he could come up with into the entirety of E2 and E3 during that time, I think it could just as easily be said that Doom 1 was a rushed game :)

Doom 2 benefited hugely from the developers' experience making the first game. The new monsters fill in a lot of gaps in Doom's roster (a lot of new mid-tier monsters and more varied behaviors), and with the game engine's functionality more or less set in stone before they started mapping, they were able to push its boundaries a lot further (aided also by the engine enhancements that came with it) and create levels that varied more in scale and scope.

I feel like Doom 2 has a somewhat different focus and aim than Doom does (or at least a different method of realizing its aim), and it's that difference that I think accounts for the holy wars between fans of one or the other. They both have weaknesses, but if either of them were really terrible games, we probably wouldn't all be here.

I kinda thought the same my first time through Doom 2. Of course I later grew to appreciate it after I had time to form an opinion that wasn't the first knee-jerk reaction. Some things I never thought though, for instance apart from a couple tracks the music's frickin' fantastic. Sure, it and the atmosphere are pretty different from Doom 1 but they're both still there one hundred percent in quality (Doom 1 also had some music tracks I didn't like at all...).

Ya DooM II just felt like a map pack than a sequel. I didn't like the Music and unlike DooM the levels didn't feel powerful and the story was kind of boring. The only really part that felt unique was The Icon Of Sin.

Clonehunter said:
Bitch please. Operation: Bodycount had giant rats and Elvis Presley. Not only that, but you could blow up walls, shoot glass, burn tables, and control a squad of AI soldiers you could even possess!